Matt Clements believes he started to see signs of the St Neots Town of old in last night’s stirring derby defeat at Royston.

The Saints have so far failed to win in 2018, and went down to a shock 6-1 home drubbing by Frome Town on Saturday.

It looked like another hard day at the office when they found themselves two goals down inside 17 minutes at Garden Walk, but a different Saints side came out after the break and pulled one back through Lewis Irwin.

And although his side weren’t able to rescue a point and lost 2-1, manager Clements was pleased with the spirit his side showed.

“I didn’t ask for a win or a number of points in the team talk, I asked for a performance,” he said. “We needed to make sure the club the fans and the boys got themselves back on track after Saturday – but that’s a line drawn through it, it’s done.

“We came out today and run a very good side close, an in-form team who dare I say it are probably going for the play-offs. With a bit more luck and a quality we could have got a point so to come away with nothing is disappointing, but the manner of performance was good, and that’s what I asked for.

“The first goal was good quality but we gave them the second. I think they had the most possession in the final third in the first half, and they didn’t over hurt us but had the opportunity, and we knew with their quality they could.

“We looked a bit frail after the first goal and it was a case of which way were we going to turn. They could have had three of four goals but we weathered it and managed to get in at half time at 2-0.

“We had a little alteration of our tactics, had a few words, and we came out as the side I’ve seen these last few months – which I know will return. We got a goal back and ran then close in the end.”

Clements opted to start with top scorer Dylan Williams on the bench, along with former Newcastle United youngster Stefan Broccoli, with Nabil Shariff partnering Lewis Irwin up front.

“We have some very talented youngsters, but sometimes you have to look at the whole make up of us,” he added. “We have some good exciting technical players, but we recognise the pitches we’ve been playing on recently, and Royston are a strong and powerful side, a bunch of men.

“I’m not knocking our lads at all, but sometimes you have to set up to compete, and after Saturday I needed to re-jink it a little bit. Dylan, Stef and players like that will be disappointed and are massively important to us, but we have to learn that we can’t play beautiful football all the time.

“Sometimes it will muddy and hard – percentage football where you have to battle to compete – these lads will do that but it’s not their skill set, and we have other lads in the side who can sometimes.

“Nabs and Lew offer that strength and ability to hold the ball up and win flick-ons, work the channels and do the hard stuff, that’s more their skill set. Dylan and Stef might have started and we might have won, but we thought that pairing would be more appropriate for today. We went with it and nearly got it right.”